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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25816180">237 Years</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/treesramblings/pseuds/treesramblings'>treesramblings</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>tree's stevetonygames bingo entries 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 3490, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Genderswap, Human/Vampire Relationship, Rule 63, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Suicide Attempt, Unhappy Ending, Vampire Bites, Vampires</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:22:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25816180</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/treesramblings/pseuds/treesramblings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I lost control like that. Please forgive me.” She bows before him even as her instincts scream to <em>touch, take, eat</em>.</p><p>“It’s okay, Miss Stark. My name is Steve Rogers. I’m—I’m so happy to meet you.”</p><p>She inches forward, trying to control herself, and sticks out a hand. He grasps it and his skin is <em>warm</em>, almost feverish, and Toni’s eyelids flutter.</p><p>“It’s nice to meet you, too. Natasha Antonia Stark. You—You can call me Toni.”</p><p>His smile is blinding and almost reminds her of the sun.</p><p>“Hi, Toni.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve Rogers/Natasha Stark, Steve Rogers/Toni Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>tree's stevetonygames bingo entries 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872934</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>237 Years</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>An angst ficlet for <a href="https://stevetonygames.dreamwidth.org/9569.html">The SteveTony Games</a>! This fills the Anniversary square!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The moment he touches her neck, their skin lights up, a golden glow surrounding them. Toni sucks in a sharp breath, overwhelmed with the new emotions and feelings barraging her brain. A moment later she’s staggering forward and he catches her, pulling her close into his chest.
</p><p><em>‘Mine. Mine, mine, mine.’</em>
</p><p>His scent suddenly engulfs her, surrounding her senses, and without even thinking her fangs drop and she’s rushing up toward his neck, wanting a bite, wanting the taste of his <em>intoxicating</em> blood for herself—
</p><p>She’s shoved back and Toni <em>snarls</em>. Who would dare stop her from feeding? He is hers to have, her <em>soulmate</em>, hers to drink from when she chooses—
</p><p><em>‘Not now. Control yourself. Please. I’ll let you have some later, I promise.’</em>
</p><p>The words rattle around her brain, loud and commanding. She feels urging and pleading and reassurance all converging on her senses at once. She whimpers.
</p><p>Toni blinks open her eyes, the overhead lighting strong, and it takes her a moment to notice Natasha in front of her, her own fangs bared but eyes at Toni’s feet, submissive.
</p><p>“Miss Stark,” Coulson says to her left, and Toni blinks again as she turns to face him. “Are you safe?”
</p><p>A moment longer is all she needs until her brain is rebooting and she takes in the situation, horrified with herself and her action.
</p><p>“Oh. Well.” She dithers for a moment before nodding at Natasha, who flicks her eyes up to meet Toni’s and then relaxes her stance. Toni’s eyes drift to the man standing behind her.
</p><p>Tall, blonde, <em>blue</em> eyes, expression blissed and relaxed and filled with adoration. His blood beneath his veins calls to her, high and strong and <em>fulfilling</em>. She’s always heard that the pull of a human soulmate’s blood was strong, but this is—too much. Toni’s been alive for four hundred years and has never lost control like this before.
</p><p>“Are you safe, Miss Stark?” Coulson asks again, and Toni nods.
</p><p>“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I lost control like that. Please forgive me.” She bows before him even as her instincts scream to <em>touch, take, eat</em>.
</p><p>“It’s okay, Miss Stark. My name is Steve Rogers. I’m—I’m so happy to meet you.”
</p><p>She inches forward, trying to control herself, and sticks out a hand. He grasps it and his skin is <em>warm</em>, almost feverish, and Toni’s eyelids flutter.
</p><p>“It’s nice to meet you, too. Natasha Antonia Stark. You—You can call me Toni.”
</p><p>His smile is blinding and almost reminds her of the sun.
</p><p>“Hi, Toni.”</p>
<hr/><p>Steve and Toni lead the Avengers together: a demigod alien, two vampires, a super soldier human, a shape shifter, and a faeling. She invites them to live in her tower, to make it their <em>home</em>, and all of them agree. They go on missions together, saving the world just in time for Thursday movie night. Toni smiles and holds Steve’s hand, kissing his knuckles just to watch the blood rush to his cheeks.
</p><p>She hasn’t been able to drink from Steve yet. There’s always been a reason not to, and Toni is relegated to the blood bags Pepper continuously provides her. The itch never fades, always sticking just under her skin, her dead heart almost restarting with her need and want to taste the sweet nectar underneath. But she perseveres.
</p><p>Two months go by since their initial meeting and she’s almost crawling the walls with the urge to drink him dry, snapping at everyone who approaches her. Steve is on a mission and not home for another two days, at which point she has to be in Miami for SI work.
</p><p><em>‘I’m sorry I’m so agitated,’</em> she whispers across the bond. His fond exasperation pulses back at her and Toni can’t help but smile.
</p><p><em>‘I have a surprise for you, actually,’</em> he sends back, and Toni perks up. <em>‘Go up to the helipad.’</em>
</p><p>Toni shivers and calls up her armor to protect her from the sun. She jumps out the balcony and rushes up to the rooftop, landing next to the helipad in confusion. She’s about to ask what the surprise is when her ears pick up the beating of helicopter wings and she turns around, seeing Steve’s smiling face when he catches her eye and jumps out of the helicopter toward her.
</p><p>Toni catches him, spinning in a circle when he kisses the cheek on the armor. She rockets down to their balcony again and nearly runs inside, barely waiting for the door to cut off the sunrays before she’s stripping off the armor and lunging into his arms for a kiss.
</p><p>It’s vicious, her teeth clacking against his until he tilts her head <em>just so</em> and directs her to a better angle. Toni groans against him and breaks apart just long enough to grin, lifting herself up into his arms.
</p><p>“Bed, bed, we need the bed—” she stammers, reattaching her mouth to his. She manages to gasp out in between kisses, “Need you in me, need my <em>teeth</em> in you, oh god, please, Steve, let me have you.”
</p><p>His dick goes from half-staff to rock hard almost instantaneously at Toni’s words, a growl escaping his throat. Steve carries her into the bedroom, dropping her onto their bed and then crawling up between her legs, peppering kisses down her throat while reaching for her pants, unbuckling them and shoving them down her legs. He grumbles and rearranges himself out from between her just long enough to slide them and her panties off before he’s back, working on her shirt next.
</p><p>Toni gasps and bucks up, reaching for his shirt and ripping it off him, headless of the fabric, gasping out, “I’ll replace it, just need you naked, need you <em>now</em>,” and then he’s shucking off his pants while she tears off her own shirt and bra, and he’s sliding inside her with twin groans between them.
</p><p>There’s no finesse, no rhythm, just Steve’s hips snapping against hers as he thrusts. The bond between them glows, golden light representing the spiritual manifestation of their first physical coupling.
</p><p>“I love you,” Steve gasps, and the warmth doubles in the bond between them. Toni sobs, gasping out, “Oh, Steve, I love you, too, so <em>much</em>,” and she feels him release, coming underneath her and in her.
</p><p>Toni shivers and the need in her body grows, unbearable, and she lets out an inhuman sound before she flips them over and bends down, sinking her teeth in his neck.
</p><p>The effect is instantaneous.
</p><p>The first sip of his blood sends <em>ice</em> down her spine and she’s pulling out, pushing off him, scrambling away and breathing hard while what feels like acid races through her body. She thinks she’s screaming, she can’t tell, and she can distantly feel Steve in the back of her mind panicking. The pain grows and grows and grows until she can’t handle it, needing it to stop—
</p><p>Blackness envelopes her, rising, crushing over her like a tidal wave until there’s nothing else around except dark blankness.</p>
<hr/><p>“Hey, honey,” Steve whispers. He runs his hands over the marker, sitting on the ground in front of it. He places the flowers in front of the headstone, replacing the old ones. “It’s our anniversary.”
</p><p>He stares at the words written on the stone, then leans forward to trace them with his finger. He doesn’t know how he’s managed to survive this long without her. He doesn’t know how the guilt alone hasn’t killed him.
</p><p>“It’s been… a while since I saw you last. But I guess having an eidetic memory is good for something, at least. I can still perfectly see your smile.” Steve half-smiles himself. “Though I wish I could see the real thing.”
</p><p>He pulls out the sandwiches he brought with him, placing one in between him and the stone and begins eating the other. He ignores the empty feeling in his chest, the part of his mind that’s been empty for so long, and breathes.
</p><p>“Two hundred and seventy-three years since I first saw you, my love,” Steve says. “God, it’s been so long.”
</p><p>He lets his mind drift back, thinking of their short-lived life together, brows furrowed and hand clenched in his pant leg.
</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he whispers. It’s been his self-imposed penance he’s burdened unto himself since she was placed in the ground. “I wish—I wish I had known that the serum would kill a vampire.”
</p><p>His hands don’t shake even when a tear falls down his cheek.
</p><p>“Someday soon I’ll join you, doll. I promise. I’ll find a way.” Steve smiles at the grass in front of him, another tear falling. “I tried setting myself on fire again. I know I’ve done it so many times, but I just—I thought maybe it would work this time. Though I guess if carving my own heart out didn’t work, nothing much will, huh?” He chuckles mirthlessly.
</p><p>Toni’s grave says nothing in return.
</p><p>“I’ll find a way back to you, Toni. I promise.”</p>
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